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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Ted Cruz, Dominionism, and the Dangers of ‘Sola Scriptura’

As
the years pass on, one thing the [u]nited States may well be remembered for
(unhappily) is being a breeding ground for a great multitude of new sects of
Christianity. At the heart of this
continuous fracturing is the idea that the Bible alone (Sola Scriptura) is to
be the foundation and rule of the Christian life. As we have noted before, however, there can
be as many interpretations of the Holy Scriptures as there are people who read
them, and with no other guiding principle than one’s private opinions, schism
is sure to multiply. And it has.

One
of the latest fruits that the crooked tree of Sola Scriptura has borne is Seven
Mountains Dominionism. We mention it
here because so many well-meaning Christians in the South and elsewhere have
fallen in love as it were with Sen Ted Cruz, who espouses this false teaching
(as does Glenn Beck and some other notables).

. . .

Anyone
who has watched Cruz on the stump knows that he often references the important
role that his father, traveling evangelist Rafael Cruz, has played in his life.
During a 2012 sermon at New Beginnings Church
in Bedford, Texas, Rafael Cruz described his son’s
political campaign as a direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

The
elder Cruz told the congregation that God would anoint Christian “kings” to
preside over an “end-time transfer of wealth” from the wicked to the righteous.
After this sermon, Larry Huch, the pastor of New Beginnings, claimed
Cruz’s recent election to the U.S. Senate was a sign that he was one of these
kings.

According
to his father and Huch, Ted Cruz is anointed by God to help Christians in their
effort to “go to the marketplace and occupy the land … and take dominion” over
it. This “end-time transfer of wealth” will relieve Christians of all
financial woes, allowing true believers to ascend to a position of political
and cultural power in which they can build a Christian civilization. When
this Christian nation is in place (or back in place), Jesus will return.

Rafael
Cruz and Larry Huch preach a brand of evangelical theology called Seven
Mountains Dominionism. They believe Christians must take dominion over seven
aspects of culture: family, religion, education, media, entertainment,
business and government. The name of the movement comes from Isaiah 2:2: “Now
it shall come to pass in the latter days that the Lord’s house shall be
established on the top of the mountains.”

Barton’s
Christian nationalism is a product of this theological approach to
culture. Back in 2011, Barton said that if Christians were going to
successfully “take the culture” they would need to control these seven areas.
“If you can have those seven areas,” Barton told his listeners to his radio
show, “you can shape and control whatever takes place in nations, continents
and even the world.”

Seven
Mountains Dominionism is the spiritual fuel that motors Cruz’s campaign for
president.

First,
Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (St
John’s Gospel 18:36).
Treating it as though it were, that Christians must conquer worldly
institutions and wield worldly power in order to bring about Christ’s Second
Coming, is playing straight into the hands of the devil, whose Antichrist would
fit quite nicely into this scheme of the Dominionists.

Second,
the Kingdom of God is already near at hand, and even within us, and may be
experienced here and now in this age, if only we would look for it in the right
way:

Third,
we must safeguard ourselves against false teachers by taking a different
approach to the Holy Scriptures than that of the Protestant churches. The teachings of the Orthodox Church, she
which has kept unimpaired the Faith given by Christ to His Holy Apostles, are
our only sure hope.

From
the Council of Jerusalem
of 1672:

Decree 2

We
believe the Divine and Sacred Scriptures to be God-taught; and, therefore, we
ought to believe the same without doubting; yet not otherwise than as the
Catholic Church [not ‘Catholic’ as in ‘Roman Catholic’ but ‘catholic’ as in
‘complete’ or ‘full’ or ‘lacking nothing’--W.G.] has interpreted and delivered
the same. For every foul heresy accepts the Divine Scriptures, but perversely
interprets the same, using metaphors, and homonymies, and sophistries of man’s
wisdom, confounding what ought to be distinguished, and trifling with what
ought not to be trifled with. For if [we were to accept Scriptures] otherwise,
each man holding every day a different sense concerning them, the Catholic
Church would not by the grace of Christ continue to be the Church until
this day, holding the same doctrine of faith, and always identically and steadfastly
believing. But rather she would be torn into innumerable parties, and subject
to heresies. Neither would the Church be holy, the pillar and ground of the
truth, {1 Timothy 3:15} without spot or wrinkle; {Ephesians 5:27} but
would be the Church of the malignant {Psalm 25:5} as it is obvious the
church of the heretics undoubtedly is, and especially that of Calvin, who are
not ashamed to learn from the Church, and then to wickedly repudiate her.

Wherefore,
the witness also of the Catholic Church is, we believe, not of inferior
authority to that of the Divine Scriptures. For one and the same Holy Spirit
being the author of both, it is quite the same to be taught by the Scriptures
and by the Catholic Church. Moreover, when any man speaks from himself he is
liable to err, and to deceive, and be deceived; but the Catholic Church, as
never having spoken, or speaking from herself, but from the Spirit of God — who
being her teacher, she is ever unfailingly rich — it is impossible for her to
in any wise err, or to at all deceive, or be deceived; but like the Divine
Scriptures, is infallible, and has perpetual authority.

And
in the Institutes of St John Cassian
(+435) we find this: If we wish to
understand the Scriptures aright, then we must first acquire purity of heart,
which requires much labor (love of enemies, fasting, prayer, etc.).

Chapter XXXIII.

Of the solution of a question which Abbot Theodore
obtained by prayer.

We
knew also Abbot Theodore,869
a man gifted with the utmost holiness and with perfect knowledge not only in
practical life, but also in understanding the Scriptures, which he had not
acquired so much by study and reading, or worldly education, as by purity of
heart alone: since he could with difficulty understand and speak but a very few
words of the Greek language. This man when he was seeking an explanation of
some most difficult question, continued without ceasing for seven days and
nights in prayer until he discovered by a revelation from the Lord the solution
of the question propounded.

Chapter XXXIV.

Of the saying of the same old man, through which he
taught by what efforts a monk can acquire a knowledge of the Scriptures.

This
man therefore, when some of the brethren were wondering at the splendid light
of his knowledge and were asking of him some meanings of Scripture, said that a
monk who wanted to acquire a knowledge of the Scriptures ought not to spend his
labour on the works of commentators, but rather to keep all the efforts of his
mind and intentions of his heart set on purifying himself from carnal vices:
for when these are driven out, at once the eyes of the heart, as if the veil of
the passions were removed, will begin as it were naturally to gaze on the
mysteries870
of Scripture: since they were not declared to us by the grace of the Holy
Spirit in order that they should remain unknown and obscure; but they are
rendered obscure by our fault, as the veil of our sins covers the eyes of the
heart, and when these are restored to their natural state of health, the mere reading
of Holy Scripture is by itself amply sufficient for beholding the true
knowledge, nor do they need the aid of commentators, just as these eyes of
flesh need no man’s teaching how to see, provided that they are free from
dimness or the darkness of blindness. For this reason there have arisen so
great differences and mistakes among commentators because most of them, paying
no sort of attention towards purifying the mind, rush into the work of
interpreting the Scriptures, and in proportion to the density or impurity of
their heart form opinions that are at variance with and contrary to each
other’s and to the faith, and so are unable to take in the light of truth.